The Wright Brother (19 page)

She’d just had the best orgasm of her life, she should have been sated, but her hunger had only grown.

When his lips finally founds hers, she tasted her scent on him, but it didn’t freak her out or make her ashamed. She felt like she’d branded him as surely as he’d branded her.

His fingers danced along her forearm as he said, “Can’t wait, Smile Girl. Slow later.”

She nodded, because she didn’t want him to wait either.

Then he was slipping hot and hard deep inside her and all she could do was sigh and close her eyes with relief that he was finally where she’d needed him to be all along. Elisa met his flexing hips thrust for thrust, crying out as his mewls of pleasure spurred her own desire to incendiary levels.

His eyes squeezed shut, and now it was her turn to dance her fingers on him. “Close?” she asked.

He nodded.

She was about to tell him to just come, that she could wait, he’d already given her one orgasm, but his fingers reached down between them, until he found her hardened nub and just that touch of his deft, callused fingers against her sensitive core made her cry out his name as pleasure washed through her.

Julian hugged her tight as his own spasms made him jerk and flex on top of her. It took a second for her beating heart to get under control.

They finally blinked their eyes open a moment later, both of them sweaty, and wearing huge grins.

“Welcome home,” she said, and he gave a soft snuffling laugh before burying his head in her neck and breathing her in.

Just as he’d promised, Julian was slow afterward. He cleaned them up, and then stretched out beside her. The sensual glide of his fingers up and down her skin had her panting almost immediately.

They’d never had time before to just sit and trace each other, learn the little nuances of one another.

She sucked in her stomach when his fingers danced along her pubis line, laughing because it tickled so much.

“Stop,” she laughed, and swatted at his hand, but now he knew where she was ticklish, and he was merciless in his attack.

Tossing his muscled leg over hers, he pinned her down and played his fingers along her skin like a master violinist. Making her sigh and laugh and gasp as the pleasure spiraled tighter and tighter inside her.

He talked with her as he worshipped her. Every once in a while signing, “So beautiful,” or, “Smile Girl. My Smile Girl.”

And she came alive for him, whimpering when he’d suckle her nipples into jagged little peaks. Running her fingers through his hair when he’d nuzzle the hollow of her throat.

There wasn’t a part on her body that he didn’t take his time learning. She gasped, she sighed, and when he leaned in to kiss her, she reversed their position, so that now she could be on top of him.

Straddling his thighs, she gazed down at him. He was a marvel of lines and swirls and raw masculinity.

Wearing a small smile on his face, he nodded. Signing at her that she could touch him anywhere she wanted to.

Biting her lip, heart pounding so hard—not because she was nervous, or timid, or even shy, but because Julian was a feast to her senses—she decided to start slow. Using just one finger she traced the word tattooed on his collar.

“Spirit,” she read it out loud.

His fingers moved, anticipating her question without her even having to ask. “Because I am only as strong as I believe I can be.”

She smiled and continued her exploration of his body. Julian was covered in tribal swirls, but also words. Words like ‘will’, ‘determination’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘faith’.

Grabbing his left arm, she traced the letters she’d noticed a few weeks ago when he’d had his arm draped over Mandy.

“Reality?” She said it like a question and cocked her head.

He ran his fingers through the tips of her hair that danced along her right breast.

“What does that mean, ‘reality’?”

She got lost in his sea-green eyes. And when he smiled, so did she.

“I got it after I left you.”

Elisa tried to glance down, but he wouldn’t let her. Tipping her chin up, he sighed and traced his tattoo.

“This was my reminder.”

“Of what?”

“That life isn’t a fairytale. I lost my muse, Mandy was my reality.”

She glanced at his other arm. There was an empty space beneath his tribal swirl. “What will you put there?”

His grin grew wide. “Destiny.”

She laughed. “Then that’s the only arm you can ever put across my shoulder.”

Wrapping his arms around her, he forced her to lie down on him. Julian captured her lips and there was no more talking after that. Only kissing. Only tongues dueling.

She moaned, undulating slowly along his rigid length until she almost came from the friction.

But Julian wouldn’t allow that. He shifted, so that he now rested against her heated core and neither of them broke their kiss as he slowly slid his way home.

It was several more hours before either of them came up for air.

Elisa was now kissing her way up and down his body. They’d made love, for hours. Not just sex, but love. Caressing, fondling, kissing, kneading, groaning, nipping, and nibbling their way all around each other. Her body was sated and so was his. In fact, she was even a little bit sore, but her need to continue touching him hadn’t abated in the slightest.

She traced the rigid scar on his right leg from his calf all the way to his upper thigh. She shuddered remembering that day. He tipped her chin up, and his smile was small but satisfied.

“It’s okay,” he said.

The memory of it was still so strong, that she shivered, and planted a row of tender kisses along his leg. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Jules.”

“You’ll never have to know that again, Smile Girl.”

And this time when she shivered, it wasn’t from excitement, or pain, but from the memory of something her grandmother had once said to her the day of her grandfather’s funeral.

“
Never speak in absolutes, Eli girl, because you just never know what tomorrow might bring
...”

Elisa hefted a stack of papers she’d gotten Xeroxed. It was a notice for a new roommate. Plans were well underway for Chas and Luke to move in together; classes had started last week, and now it was just simply a matter of them finding an apartment they could afford to rent.

In the meantime Chas had had her half of their apartment packed up and waiting in boxes. Rent would be due in another three weeks; she really needed to find a roommate soon. If she didn’t get one within the week, she’d very likely have to ask her mom and dad to help float her, which she really didn’t want to do. As it was, she’d have to pay a larger portion of the rent this month regardless, since she wouldn’t expect anyone to pay a full share when they wouldn’t have been living there the entire month.

Leaning against the red brick building, she waited for Julian to come out of his English class.

They’d not had a chance to spend more days together after that first one, well, not alone anyway. Chas had had to move, and Julian had been sweet enough to come by each night and help her pack, but Elisa was desperate for a little alone time with him.

If she hadn’t been so desperate for the rent money she would have just opted to keep the place for herself, but there was no way she could swing the seven hundred dollar a month rent on her own. Not when her monthly paychecks totaled up to a princely sum of eight hundred bucks and some change.

She’d have just enough to pay rent, get some gas, and if she were really lucky pay her cell bill, and that would be it. Which, of course, was a slight problem, as she’d have to eat at some point.

Elisa sighed.

The campus was super green thanks to all the melt off from the snow last winter. The towering trees, and old colonial era architecture of the college was already beautiful on its own, but add to the fact that she now had Julian here, every day and every night, and suddenly the world felt just a little bit brighter.

The chiming of bells signaled the end of the hour and she shoved off the building, watching the doors open as the students came marching out.

Her heart flipped in her chest the moment she spotted him. Julian no longer just dressed in shades of black and gray, he was still really careful in the clothes that lined his closet, the jeans were all dark, and the shirts either very light colors, or dark colors with enough range to them that he could easily pair them together and not clash.

But even in a place like college where kids no longer felt the need to dress like everyone else because they were free to express themselves as they were, he still stuck out.

There was a potent magnetism to him, one that made anyone who looked at him—man or woman—take a double look. And then sometimes even a third.

She smiled when he glanced up, and even though she was across the street, she felt the strength of his stare move through her like a hot current.

A brunette dressed in a short blue jean skirt and a teal floral top came up to him and waved, her cheeks dimpling prettily when he smiled back at her. It was obvious she was flirting with him.

And why not? The last thing she felt was jealousy; she was secure in Julian’s feelings for her, and it was even kind of a turn on to know that he was so wanted and all he wanted was her.

Elisa would be the first to admit that a girl would either have to be dead or a lesbian not to notice that Julian was in an entirely different stratosphere when it came to levels of hotness.

Chuckling to herself, she shoved the papers into her book bag, not bothering to zip it up before jogging across the street to catch up to him.

She tried to hide her smile when she took his hand and the girl’s blue eyes dimmed just a little. Elisa didn’t want to crush the girl, but she was also making no bones about the fact that he was very much taken.

Julian waved goodbye to the girl, and then, without missing a beat, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled Elisa in for a short but sexually charged kiss.

“Mm,” she moaned, breathless and slightly dizzy a moment later, then slid her hand underneath his hunter-green t-shirt and danced her fingers on his hot skin. “Who was that?”

Giving her one more hard kiss, he shook his head. “Not sure. She’s in my English lit class.”

“She likes you.” Elisa verbalized it as she took his elbow and started to head toward the quad.

His soft chuckle made her lips twitch.

“I’ve only got eyes for you, doll face.”

“Doll face.” She stuck out her tongue, gesticulating rapidly. “You’ve been hanging around Chris too long.”

He nodded, and then snatched one of the sheets from out of her book bag.

“Hey.” She swatted his shoulder. “Give that back.”

But he was looking down at the page with a frown and hadn’t seen her speak. “What is this?” He glanced up, signing it a second later.

Thinning her lips, she took the sheet out of his hand and crumpled it back into her bag. “You know Chas is moving out.”

His frown only grew larger. “You’re asking a stranger to move in with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like that, Jules. I’ll be careful. It’s not like I’m going to room with a guy anyway. So you don’t need to worry.”

He shook his head and stopped her, forcing the students walking the sidewalk behind them to pass around.

“I’m not comfortable with that.”

She sighed. “Julian, I can’t move into a dorm this late in the game. I have to stay in that apartment.”

He grabbed her fingers, kissed their tips, and then pointed to his chest.

She frowned. Not that that wouldn’t solve all her problems, or that a part of her didn’t desperately want that, but…

Wiggling her hands free, she signed. “Jules, think about it. We’re dating.”

His eyes widened as if to say,
Yeah, and?

“We’re just starting out.”

His brows lifted even higher.

Cocking her hip out, her lips tugged into an exasperated frown. “What if we get on each other’s nerves?”

“I can wake up every morning and make you happy.”

Her stomach flopped.

“I read in bed late at night.” She tried again.

He shrugged. “When I’m tired, I’ll just give you an orgasm and make you fall asleep.”

Snickering, she covered her mouth when a group of people glanced their way with perplexed frowns. She sometimes forgot how foreign it must look to others to see people speaking sign, it was just second nature to her.

“Jules, I’m serious. What if this doesn’t work out?”

His face went serious as he said, “So am I. I love you, Elisa. And I know you. You know me. It’s not like this is really that new. We’ve been preparing for this for years. You know I’m right.”

She tucked an errant strand of his inky hair back into place. Elisa loved touching him. Loved being with him.

Would it really be so scary?

“Julian, what if you live with me and then find out you can’t stand me?”

He shook his head rapidly. “Can’t happen. We’ve already been through more stuff than most couples, Smile Girl, and we’re still together. I could say the same to you, what if you wake up one day and realize you hate me?”

She might have laughed that off, except that she could see a hint of the unsure fifteen year old he’d been peeking out of his gaze. “No,” she said, and then placed his palm to her chest. “I could never hate you.” She finished her sentence vocally.

It was crazy how just one smile from him made her feel. Like there was nothing impossible, nothing she couldn’t do. Nothing she wasn’t capable of. Julian made her feel complete.

“But I still don’t know, Jules. I’m terrified of messing this up. I love you too much to even think about—”

He kissed her. Swept her into his arms, and held her tight against him. So tight she could feel the tremors coursing through him.

How had she ever thought she could live the rest of her life without this? Without him? How had she managed to do it for the first twenty-one years of her life?

“We don’t go into this blindly,” he said. “We realize we’ll have problems, and we prepare ourselves for it. But I want to be wherever you are, Smile Girl.”